I'll share more of this in the future if anyone is interested? ( @beginning-writer I feel like you'll like this ahaha) I plan on doing a proper little background on each Clan and character in Horizons in future too!
UBS in Depth: Wits Stat, Technology in Dolonwood and Ashfolk
In the recent days, I have been writing a series of articles going in depth on each of the five UBS stats (Brute, Swift, Wits, Heart, and Wyrd), along with introducing bits and pieces of a fantasy setting I’m working on called Dolonwood. Wondering what UBS is? Well, it’s the zine’s new system, and it can be found in the page listings above], or by poking around the #UBS tag.
We’ve already talked about Brute and Swift (along with Ogres and Merrow), so let’s discuss Wits.
Wits is a measure of how smart you are. This is knowledge, but also how clever you are. It’s both how smart you are and how good you are at outsmarting others. As a result, a scholar and a mad scientist have high Wits, but so does a conman or a chess master.
As for specifics, you can do a lot with wits. Inventing, crafting and technology use all use Wits. Knowledge of facts is Wits, whether it’s knowledge of space, history, nature, and so on. That said it isn’t your ability to do anything with that knowledge, just your ability to recall it. Finally, deception is Wits, as it’s your ability to outwit someone.
Now that we’ve discussed Wits, let’s discuss Technology in Dolonwood…
Technology in Dolonwood is positioned firmly in the Enlightenment era. Steam engines and electricity don’t exist, so information and goods travel only as fast as water and mounts can carry it. In addition, this chain of transport can be easily disrupted by thieves, soldiers, bad weather or monsters.
Dolonwood is not stuck in the Medieval Era. Gunpowder and Guns are a known factor, though repeating firearms are unknown. Calculus, Astronomy, Alchemy and other advanced sciences have been introduced. There are a wide variety of governments in the world - Theocracies, Democracy, and Monarchies (both Constitutional and otherwise) are the most common, but societies that are Anarcho-Capitalist and Anarcho-Communist exist as well. Due to advances in public and private education, literacy has become more common.
So what has been driving these advances? Well, in the last hundred years academies and societies have become to spring up around Dolonwood, the best of which are concentrated in the Edgeworld Mountains. The Ashfolk are the people that started these great institutions.
Endlessly focused and long-lived, the Ashfolk are about 5-6 feet tall and have ash colored skin and long, pointy ears. When their anger flares, their fiery heritage flares up, and their hairs, eyes, and hands go ablaze. In fact, they are so aligned to flame that ash flakes off of their skin, hence their name. This heritage comes from the volcanic mountains at the center of the world where they used to inhabit until they were booted out by the Draconis Cult.
It took them 10 long years to make it from the center to the edge of the world. However, aided by a collection of Geists, they made it to their home into the Edgeworld Mountains. There, they discovered Lunite deposits, a previously rare mineral, in vast amounts. By mining and selling this mineral they managed to make enough money to form the academies.
The Ashfolks’ bodies are living furnaces. They can create flames at will, breathing fire and boiling things with their hands. They are immune to the effects of extreme cold and heat. However, they are more elemental and thus alien in biology. This means that they cannot be healed through magical healing, and they start to die when become emerged in water or particularly wet.
The Ashfolk talent looks like the following:
Living Furnace (You can create flames and heat your body to scalding temperatures)
Fire Immunity (You are immune to the effects of extreme heat and flame).
Cold Immunity (You are immune to the effects of extreme cold and frost).
Being an Ashfolk comes with the fault Ashfolk (Roll Under/Disadvantage), which looks like the following:
Elemental Biology (You cannot be healed by magical healing)
Weak to Water (You become injured and can die if you become too wet)
I’ll be going into the Ashfolk and their history with the Draconis Cult in a coming article. Next time, however, Heart!
